In honor of this year's overblown, under whelming controversy, I present 10 Movies That Every Writer Should See. The writer's strike ended rather quickly, probably when both sides realized that no person living in the real world cared about the scandal even while it was costing everyone in show business lots of money. How important is the writer to the creative process? As a writer I feel inclined to say that in Hollywood the director is the true mastermind, since they flip through writers like unwanted screenplays. However, a few writers have transcended their mediocre Hollywood job and reached the untouchable status of writer-director. Not all of these geniuses have been represented on the list however--apologies to personal favorites Tarantino and Joel and Ethan Coen. These movies are not about the creative talents behind the screen but the creative talents as presented onscreen.

10.The Shining
It was a tough decision to boost Stanley Kubrick's directorial slaying of Stephen King's source material over much darker fare such as Shattered Glass and Leaving Las Vegas. However, every writer can relate to the madness of Jack Torrance. Madness and losing touch with the real world is always so much more enjoyable than the clichéd alternative. One instantly got the feeling that this vision of primal fear was too figurative to be Stephen King. This was Kubrick's own vision of creative hell.

9.Shakespeare in Love
A rather optimistically sad movie, one that dares to suggest that writing and eternal fame is worth losing the love of your life. Writers will debate this message for hours on end but one thing is for sure--no other film has glorified the writing experience as much as this Best Picture winner.

8.Adaptation
Whatever subtlety Charlie Kaufman managed with Being John Malkovich he bashed over the head with Adaptation, a film not only about writing but about defying the conventions of writing, both as a screenwriter and as an original thinker. Kudos to Nicholas Cage for playing both types of writers (the career sellout and the die-hard pioneer) and for the Robert McKee cameo which deconstructs even Kaufman's brilliantly self-deprecating work.

7.Misery
Misery is a film that can only truly scare writers, as in aspiring horror novelists, though Kathy Bates tried her "darndest" to make even mainstream viewers cringe. As writers we are paranoid--perhaps most of us unnecessarily paranoid--that our biggest fans will one day confront us and tell us exactly what they don't like about our work. With a sledgehammer and a few criticisms.

6.Quills
There have been countless representations of legendary authors put onscreen as well as the consequences that their audacity has brought. There have been far more righteous instances of this truth even in the last decade, but none of them were as challenging and as piteous as the Marquis de Sade in Quills. Of all the great writers in history who were unfairly banned, most of them had a small following ready to face retribution for supporting great literature. The Marquis de Sade had no true following except a bunch of old perverts and horny young girls. The writing was ahead of its time, and perhaps too abusively psychological even for today's lowest standards. (We're still in a generation that applauds Diablo Cody for writing a story with "heart") It takes strong faith in your own abilities to persevere against a strong current--especially when your most ardent followers miss the point entirely.

5.Sideways
Sideways is a story about wine, but if you can look past the sexually explicit conversations about Pinot Noir you will see that it's actually a movie about writing and about reconciling idealism with common world results. Niles has to be one of the select few onscreen protagonists to be such a talented writer and actually not find success. Sideways' cynicism is in direct opposition to the studio system logic and yet is still snappy enough to provide us with a hung over happy ending.

4.RKO 281
Not too many people remember RKO 281, or even Orson Welles in this day and age. However, a glimpse inside the mind and lide of the screen's greatest writer does give us insight as to what we are--both as viewers and as creative talents. This is Liev Schreiber's best performance to date. (And one of Roy Scheider and John Malkovich's better ones, for that matter) Schreiber is an actor powerful enough to mimic Welles' mannerisms, and subtle enough to play him as both a monster and a silly boy fascinated by his million dollar toys.

3.Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge is not very subtle--in fact, it's downright assaulting to viewers visually and aurally for most of its running time. Nevertheless, this caricature of the poor writer's life is at once surreally energetic and tragically poetic. What other film would fill its darkest and most somber moments with cross dressers, midgets and large men screaming about sensuality? Moulin Rouge is not only an idolatrous vision of the artistic lifestyle--it's also a cartoon exaggeration of man's creative urges. Not so much a glorified view but a parody of brilliant thought, solidified with a great scene of Nicole Kidman orgasming to unpublished, plagiarized words.

2.Capote
Capote is often criticized as a film that is as slow moving as it is soulless--the very definition of Truman Capote as a human being. He used his slow affectation as a means of elevating his creative mind above his contemporaries, and establishing himself as some alien alpha male with a queen-like disposition. While this movie made no effort to make Capote likable, it did succeed in humanizing a modern day monster, by telling a story of exploitation, regret and morally confusing epitaphs--everything we understand cold blooded murder to be. This a movie for every writer that has jumped the shark creatively and emotionally--and with the blood of someone's soul on their hands.

1.Ed Wood
What can you say about Edward D. Wood Jr? He was a gifted man that was totally out of sync with the movie making business. Everything he touched--from high concept alien story arcs, to powerful stock footage, to aging film legend Bella Lugosi--turned into a golden egg. Audiences do collect Wood's "golden" work these days but it's done in a patronizing spirit, one that acknowledges the bliss, the timelessness, of utter failure. Tim Burton's Ed Wood illustrates the creative life of Wood perfectly, and somehow manages to salute a writer's dedication and misplaced genius, even without stooping to sarcasm. Edward D. Wood Jr. was possibly the first artist to be both ahead and behind his time and well after his death. (Now there's a Wood-ism for you) Fortunately, Wood's failure was Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's triumph and in the end, restored this filmmaker's legend. Kind of ironic, in a writer sort of way.